UP, Maharashtra, Gujarat And Bihar In Line Of Fire NREGA laggards could face an intrusive Centre as it emerges that a handful of states are pulling down the national average. Rural development ministry is contemplating "monthly monitoring' for Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bihar, after a performance review found that these states were falling short of their potential for job guarantee scheme. It would be an embarrassment for the four states as the RD ministry holds a quarterly NREGA monitoring for all. The officer-incharge from state comes for discussions with his

Women and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles usually don't go together. But, breaking the glass ceiling in a typical male bastion, a woman scientist will now head a key missile project of the country. Tessy Thomas, 45, will now be the project director for the new advanced version of the 2,500-km range Agni-II missile. The promotion comes soon after she played a crucial role in the successful firing of the 3,500-km range Agni-III missile last week as associate project director.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) might be trying to round up stray cattle as quickly as possible, but the problem of inadequate "police staff' during the operations remains. On Tuesday, yet another MCD inspector was roughed up by irate illegal dairy owners in Saraswati Vihar, making it the third incident where MCD officials had to face the wrath of the public. The civic agency has to submit a status report on controlling the cattle menace before the Delhi High Court by August.

Your childhood fears about leaking plane toilets have come true. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently went on a surprise visit to IGI to check the airworthiness of planes and overall airport safety. The underbelly of a domestic airline's, Airbus A-320, was found to be covered with blue paint. A surprised DGCA team conducted investigation and found that the front toilet's blue flush fluid was leaking and must have got stuck (frozen, rather) when the plane was flying and then got evenly spread out on the bottom with air flow.

The transport department held a review meeting with officials from Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) and RITES on Tuesday to discuss the fate of Pilot B of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor from Moolchand to Delhi Gate.

A paracetamol tablet that fails to bring the fever down or, more seriously, a capsule for a heart condition that has no curative effect

HAFLONG

Ranbaxy has signed a collaboration agreement with US-based Merck for drug discovery and clinical development in anti-infective drugs. Ranbaxy and Merck will work together to develop clinically validated anti-bacterial and anti-fungal drug candidates. Ranbaxy will carry out drug discovery and clinical development through Phase IIa clinical trials, with Merck conducting development and commercialization of drug candidates after that.

Bangkok: Oxfam says the initial estimated death toll of 100,000 in Myanmar as a result of Cyclone Nargis may multiply by up to 15 times if clean water and sanitation are not urgently provided.

Earthquake Measuring 7.8 Leaves 8,533 Dead In Sichuan Alone The death toll in Monday's earthquake that devastated parts of southwest China's Sichuan province appeared heading towards a massive figure that might surpass 20,000 people. Till late evening on Monday, official sources confirmed 8,533 deaths in Sichuan alone, but indicated that the situation was so grim that a lot more people may have lost lives.